The Complete Plantation Recordings


The Complete Plantation Recordings, subtitled The Historic 1941-42 Library of Congress Field Recordings, is an album compiling blues musician Muddy Waters first recordings collected by Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress in 1941-42 that was released by the Chess label in 1993. Lomax recorded Waters at Stovall Farm in Clarksdale, Mississippi in 1941 and returned the following year to make additional recordings. Thirteen tracks were originally released as Down on Stovall’s Plantation in 1966 on Testament Records.

Reception

The album was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2001 as a Classic of Blues Recording
AllMusic reviewer Cub Koda stated "At long last, Muddy's historic 1941-1942 Library of Congress field recordings are all collected in one place, with the best fidelity that's been heard thus far.... Of particular note are the inclusion of several interview segments with Muddy from that embryonic period and a photo of Muddy playing on the porch of his cabin, dressed up and looking sharper than any Mississippi sharecropper on Stovall's plantation you could possibly imagine. This much more than just an important historical document; this is some really fine music imbued with a sense of place, time and loads of ambience".

Track listing

All compositions credited to McKinley Morganfield except where noted
  1. "Country Blues" – 3:32
  2. Interview #1 – 3:51 Previously unissued
  3. "I Be's Troubled" – 3:04
  4. Interview #2 – 1:50 Previously unissued
  5. "Burr Clover Farm Blues" – 2:54 Previously unissued
  6. Interview #3 – 1:13 Previously unissued
  7. "Ramblin' Kid Blues" – 1:10 Previously unissued
  8. "Ramblin' Kid Blues" – 3:15
  9. "Rosalie" – 3:02
  10. "Joe Turner" – 2:46
  11. "Pearlie May Blues" – 3:25
  12. "Take a Walk With Me" – 3:04
  13. "Burr Clover Blues" – 3:13
  14. Interview #4 – 0:34 Previously unissued
  15. "I Be Bound to Write You" – 3:25
  16. "I Be Bound to Write You" – 2:52 Previously unissued
  17. "You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone" – 3:25
  18. "You Got to Take Sick and Die Some of These Days" – 2:08
  19. "Why Don't You Live So God Can Use You?" – 2:07
  20. "Country Blues" – 3:34
  21. "You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone" – 3:40 Previously unissued
  22. "32-20 Blues" – 3:22 Previously unissued

    Personnel